The water balloon toss was one way to beat the heat at the July
4 picnic

July 4th 'solidarity' turnout was a record

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A record crowd of U.S. citizens and families showed up Thursday for
the traditional July 4th celebration.

By mid-morning James Fendell, chairman of the American Colony Committee,
estimated the crowd at 5,000 persons. But he said that organizers will
have to check hot dog and beer consumption before making a final estimate.
He expected more to come, and they did.

The turnout was higher, he said, in part because U.S. citizens here
sought to show solidarity with the United States at a time of international
danger. He said attendees always wore patriotic garb to the event but that
this year he has seen more pins and other personal displays of patriotism.

The event was at the Cerveceria Costa Rica facility in Alajuela, and
the cars of guests far outstripped the capacity of the available parking.
Vehicles were lined up more than a half mile down the General Cañas
Autopista.

The annual event is free to U.S. citizens and family. Support comes
from contributions. The committee has been putting it on since 1961.

Formalities were held to a minimum. The principal speaker, John Danilovich,
U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, was the only one with a blazer and tie.
He read the July 4 message issue by U.S. President George Bush

and then told the crowd that "each of us has a duty . . . to represent
our country overseas."

The U.S. Marine color guard was the center of attention for an emotional
flag raising while the University of Costa Rica Symphonic Band played both
the national anthem of Costa Rica and that of the United States. Passenger
jets from nearby Juan Santamaría Airport gave the impression of
a flyover twice at key moments. The crowd recited the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

For adults the key attractions were free beer and free hot dogs. The
committee served thousands of hot dogs. For children, the attractions were
games, hot dogs and a chance to mount a mechanical bull.

Not far from everyoneís mind were events in New York and Washington
Sept. 11. In fact, some of the attendees had not joined together like this
since a memorial service Sept, 18 for the victims of the terrorist attacks.

The picnic was held under a worldwide warning issued by the U.S. State
Department about possible unspecified dangers from terrorists. Security
involved bag searches, and each visitor presented a U.S. passport. Fuerza
Pública even brought its K-9 unit. But there were no incidents.

Normal just doesnít live here anymore

Friends have come to my rescue with
sympathy, commiseration, and two
have even offered a loaner computer. So it is time to move on, get
on with my life and get back to normal. However, it isnít that easy.

Within days of my own robbery, I was told of a friendís cousin who was
shot four times when thieves stole his motorbike. He is now paralyzed.
Then, my neighbor told me about his friend whose house was broken into
over the weekend. The thieves poisoned the guard dog, cut the metal fence
and broke into the house where they emptied it of all the electrical appliances.

Children are being kidnapped and killed. A retired police official is
being implicated in car theft. Enough pedestrians have been mugged on First
Avenue to make it a dangerous place ó with no police around to help so
far. Normal doesnít exist anymore.

The sad and frightening thing I am coming to realize is that this country,
which during the 80ís was an oasis of peace in Central America, has changed.
While other Central American countries were at war, this beautiful little
country without an army was both safe and peaceful. It now seems as if
the lawless have formed their own army. They may be disorganized, but they
obviously are more than the police can handle.

Earlier there were gunshots somewhere in the neighborhood. Once, when
I heard a small explosion, I knew it was just someone celebrating a birthday
or a holiday with firecrackers. As I listened to that crack, I was just
as certain that it was a gunshot.

The theft of my passport, of course, required a visit to the U.S. Embassy.
It is a three-hour bus ride for me to Pavas. Engrossed in my book, I missed
the stop on the first bus and decided to walk along Sixth Street to catch
another bus. After walking a block, I saw two homeless boys ahead of me.
One was sitting on the sidewalk and the other, a tall skinny teenager,
was standing, just looking at me. I immediately became frightened and decided
to cross the street when a taxi came along. I hailed it and got in, hating
the idea that I had now become so fearful.

At the embassy in the passport room one meets others whose passports
have been stolen. Some of their stories were worse than mine. One young
man had come overland from the U.S. He had no trouble in Nicaragua,

Guatemala, or Mexico. But one day in Costa Rica and his wallet and passport
were picked out of the side pocket of his jeans where he thought they were
safe. He said, "They say that the embassy will help you if youíre in trouble
or are robbed, that they will give you money. Not true. They wanted
$60 before I could get a passport. When I told them all my money was stolen,
they told me to contact my family."

A kindly grandmother, who has been coming to Costa Rica for eight years,
was there with her granddaughter. When their car overheated, the nice people
who offered to help instead stole her purse. Then they evidently followed
them to the house of friends where they were staying and when they all
went to the OIJ to report the theft, the thieves broke into the house and
emptied it of everything. When she had explained to the embassy that she
had nothing, they simply told her they needed $60 to issue her a new passport.

By now I was angry, and my anger was directed towards the embassy. My
own passport, which had cost $40 to renew, was costing $60 because I had
been foolish enough to get robbed. I was planning all the sarcastic and
nasty things I was going to say to the consul if I ever got waited on.
But for the moment I escaped into my book. A character in the book, a Vietnamese
woman was saying, "First, you must reject hate. Hate and fear on two sides
of the same coin. Hate imprisons you in time . . . . Once you let go of
hate, you are free of time and of the past."

I read that sentence over and over again. At the moment I thought I
was more full of anger than hate, but obviously they are related. I didnít
want to be trapped in the past.

When I was finally in front of the consul, I was no longer angry. I
even felt a little sorry for the pretty woman on the other side of the
window for all of the anger she must have to absorb.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ó Yellow fever, a viral disease presently confined
to jungle areas of the Americas, could return to urban areas of the region,
warns the Pan American Health Organization.

The organization said it had made a new appeal to member states of the
agency to include vaccines against yellow fever in national immunization
programs in all areas at risk of transmission.

The agency said that all cases of yellow fever reported in the region
since the 1940ís have been of the jungle form of the disease, transmitted
by Haemagogus mosquitoes. However, with the rapid spread of the Aedes aegypti
mosquito in the region, the health group said there is a danger that urban
yellow fever could return.

"The best way to guarantee that urban yellow fever does not return to
the cities is to reduce the density of Aedes aegypti and to increase the
numbers of people vaccinated in the high-risk areas," said Arias. "We have
to have a good vaccination program for tourists and travelers, who move
between countries and from zones where there is risk of yellow fever to
zones without risk, and vice versa."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says sporadic yellow
fever infections in South America presently occur almost exclusively in
forestry and agricultural workers from occupational exposure in or
near forests. Most countries have regulations and requirements for yellow
fever vaccination that travelers must meet prior to entering the country.

Currently, no inoculations are required for Costa Rica. The U.S. Embassy
says it is a good idea to check with your physician for recommendations
of optional inoculations and health precautions.

However, there is growing concern
by health officials over the recent outbreak of dengue fever. Although
the incidence in Costa Rica remains lower than in other Central American
countries, the embassy advises travelers to take special care especially
when visiting jungle regions.

Dengue is transmitted by mosquito bite and there is no vaccine. Anyone
planning to travel in affected areas should take steps to avoid mosquito
bites. These include wearing long sleeves and pants, using insect repellent
on exposed skin, and sleeping under mosquito netting.

International medical personnel are fighting a serious outbreak of dengue
in El Salvador. They have expressed fears that the disease could spread
south as far as Costa Rica.

The area along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica always has small dengue
outbreaks, caused, in part by the rainy season that is helpful for mosquito
production. Public health effort in Costa Rica usually are sufficient to
handle the problems.

Money exchanges raided

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Agents of the Ministerio de Securidad Pública raided offices
of a money exchanging business in San José Thursday. The firm involved
is Ofinter S. A.

The company has two offices, one in the San Pedro Mall and the other
in downtown San José.

The raids were carried out at the request of Canadian authorities who
are investigating the movement of quantities of money from Costa Rica to
Canada.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the law of freedom of the press
in Costa Rica.

And during the last 100 years the rights contained in the law have been
elevated to the constitutional level as something that is fundamental to
free thought and as an international human right.

In addition, since the creation of the law, new advances, including
radio and television, have been joined by even newer developments, such
as the Internet, to advance the right of information here and in the rest
of the world.

In anticipation of the anniversary, a roundtable of press experts discussed
the present status of the law and associated regulations affecting the
press at La Nación earlier this week.

Those involved were Joaquin Vargas Gené, a journalist and lawyer;
Edgar Fronseca Monge, director of the daily Al Día; Julio Suñol
Leal, lawyer and journalist; Miguel Sobrado, a lawyer and journalist, and
Patricia Vega, director of the Escuela de Ciencias de la Comunicación
Colectiva, whose school set up the program.

The panelists agreed that the means of communication are responsible
for presenting information honestly, ethically and objectively so that
the recipients can form adequate opinions to confront social problems.

Vargas Gené noted that due to legislative and judicial action
the 23 articles of the law have been reduced to six. And the concept of
expression without prior restraint has been incorporated into the Costa
Rican Constitution.

A public that is badly informed is not able to make

the correct decisions that will address
political or social issues. Liberty of expression would seem to suggest
liberty of information, too, he pointed out.

Over the 100 years of the law, according to lawyer Suñol, there
have been three legal reforms and the Sala IV, the constitutional court,
has thrown out 12 articles that conflict with the Constitution. In addition,
some fines specified in the law are obsolete, including some that provide
for fines of 10 to 100 colons.

Fonseca of Al Día agreed that the law is obsolete and hoped for
more modern legislation. He noted that even the most firm defenders of
liberty sometimes have to confront repression. He said that happened after
the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States because the press there has been
involved in clashes with the government and fights to keep the liberty
that was won over the years and the centuries.

Sobrado said that now before the Asemblea Nacional there are 12 proposals
to reform the press law. But now journalists have no guarantees and are
vulnerable.

Costa Rica has laws that forbid insults to high government officials
and laws that treat libel as a criminal matter. In addition, the country
has a right of reply law that allows persons named in a publication to
demand similar space to give their side of the story.

A reporter for La Nación and the newspaper has been convicted
of insulting a man who was serving as an honorary consul in a European
country. The news article was based on material in the European press.

The newspaper is fighting for the right to report without malice which
has been reported elsewhere. The case is being appealed to international
bodies.

El Pueblo bar celebration ends on the wrong foot

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The evening was going to be a boysí night out. Investigators from Costa
Rica and from Panamá had worked hard, and now they had cracked the
case. An international criminal suspect was behind bars. Time to kick back
and down a few cold ones.

From here on in the story gets fuzzy. All the Judicial Investigating
Organizationís subdirector would say Thursday is that in the early morning
hours a dispute arose at a location in Centro Comercial el Pueblo. That's
the tourist complex in north San José filled with bars, restaurants,
shops and dance halls.

Involved were three agents for the Judicial Investigating Organization
and two members of the Policías Técnica Panameña.

When it was over, someone identified as a Costa Rican citizen had lost
a toe, the presumed victim of a firearm discharge.

"The situation at the moment is confusing, but we guarantee the citizenry
that if excessive force was

displayed by any functionary of our
institution discipline will be applied rigorously. . . ," said Gerardo
Láscarez Jiménez, acting director general of the police agency.

He said the events early Thursday might turn out to be a legitimate
case of self defense. Láscarez also said that the organizationís
internal affairs division would investigate the case. He said he would
not give more information because the case was under investigation.

The reluctance to give information was in marked contrast to Wednesday
when Láscarez held a press conference to report the capture of Carlos
Yamil Mejía Caballero, who was wanted to answer murder charges in
Panamá involving the killing of a judge and a prosecutor.

This was the case that occupied the Costa Rican and Panamanian policemen.
The investigation culminated in a police raid early Wednesday that resulted
in the arrest of what Láscarez said were members of a kidnap and
murder-for-hire gang. Agents arrested Mejía a little while later
at another location.

In the U.S., the hearts beat as one for one nation

By Yahaira MairenaSpecial to A.M. Costa Rica

This Fourth of July is my first in America, and the first the Americans
have seen since the terrible events of Sept. 11 when terrorists attacked
the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington,
D.C.

I already suspected that this year's
Independence Day celebrations would be tinged with some fear, some nostalgia,
and much American Spirit, but Denver, Colorado, where I am staying, is
also suffering from a terrible drought that has compounded area fire hazards
and has resulted in numerous, widespread forest fires throughout the state.
Therefore, fireworks are banned throughout Colorado, except for a few displays.

Miss Mairena

As I made my way through the brightly colored food stands and porta-potties
at the celebration at Progress Park, located in Littleton, a southwest
Denver suburb, I wondered what the people around me thought about their
country's Independence Day. I discovered that the hearts of these people
beat in unison.

Everyone I talked to said that this Fourth of July is a special day
for the family. The events of September 11 changed the way these people
think and drove them to seek liberty inside their hearts.
Now they can see that with liberty comes fear that

they will lose this liberty. And
this year, people feel more pride in their country.

Some of these Denver citizens didn't have fireworks this year, but they
enjoyed a night of family fun, music, and American pride and a feeling
of nationalism, which is a big step in this nation's new relationship with
itself. Most people I spoke with also said that they noticed a lot more
security at this year's Fourth of July celebrations.

According to Tara, a young mother of 4-year-old Steven: "For me, it
doesn't matter whether we have fireworks. It's more important to have my
own family around me."

Eighty-six year old Peggy and her 58-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, said
that they would miss the fireworks. "But I think it is better for the security
of the children," said Peggy.

Elvira, a native Mexican who has lived in Denver for five years, said
she felt that all the people she saw in her restaurant this morning looked
sad.

"All is different since September 11. In my opinion, they are sad because
they are concerned about the security of the nation, and second because
we do not have fireworks," she said.

This night is different because Americans are focusing more on the fun
they can have when they have their families around them. What is most important
is that this country moves into the future as a unified nation.

Miss Mairena is a student in Denver. She lives in San
José.

Central American TVproposed by Tovar

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

How about an all-Central America television network?

That was one of the topics that Chancellor Roberto Tovar and representatives
of other Central American nations discussed Thursday.

The goal would be to encourage regional integration with an interchange
of cultural and artistic messages from the Central American countries,
according to a statement released later by the Ministerio de Relaciones
Exteriores y Culto.

For the next six months, Costa Rica is president pro tem of the Sistema
de la Integración Centroamericana. The position rotates among member
nations.

Thatís why Tovar was meeting with ambassadors and chiefs of missions
of the Central American states accredited to Costa Rica. Tovar discusssed
his agenda for the next six months with the diplomats, including the possible
start of negotiations with the United States on George Bushís proposal
for a free trade area of Central America.

Costa Rica already has agreed in principal to a regionalization of the
customs process to reduce the paperwork and time in moving goods from one
country to another. The specifics have to be worked out. So this
is another topic that was discussed Thursday.

Uribe visits Spainin search of help

By A.M. Costa Rica wire services

MADRID, Spain --ó Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe is in Spain
for a two-day visit aimed at strengthening economic ties and obtaining
European aid to help his government end a 38-year civil war with leftist
rebels.

Uribe is scheduled to confer with Jose Maria Aznar, prime minister,
and other top Spanish government officials Thursday in Madrid. He arrived
in Spain Wednesday from France, where he held talks with President Jacques
Chirac.

The new Columbian president takes office August 7. He has pledged to
crack down on the countryís outlawed rebels and paramilitary groups as
a way of pushing them into peace negotiations.

Last year, the European Union pledged $300 million to support the peace
process in Colombia. The aid was to be used to help fund government programs
to promote human rights and fight poverty, but not to provide any military
aid to the troubled South American nation.

The United States is providing Colombia with more than $1 billion in
mainly military aid to battle drug trafficking.

U.S. fugitive nabbedafter leaving here

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

American retirees arenít the only ones who flock to Costa Rica. Fugitive
James Sullivan made it his hiding place for a while before finally being
nabbed by law enforcement officials Monday in Thailand after almost five
years on the lam.

Wanted for connection to the hired hit of his wife, Lita, in 1987, Sullivan
was known to have fled the country after being indicted by a Georgia court.
The murder was a contract killing in which authorities say Sullivan, 51,
hired a man to shoot the victim on the front porch of her residence. At
the time, the Sullivans were involved in a divorce settlement which was
to go into effect the day after the murder occurred.

After his stay in Costa Rica, Sullivan traveled to Panama City and Venezuela
before arriving in Thailand in June, 1998, according to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation. Following a feature on the Lita Sullivan murder on Fox
television's "America's Most Wanted," the FBI received tips that Sullivan
was living in Thailand.

Following weeks of surveillance, the Royal Thai Police, arrested Sullivan
in the coastal community of Cha-am.

Bush might resumeLatin drug flights

By A.M. Costa Rica wire services

WASHINGTON, D.C. ó The White House says President Bush is considering
a recommendation to resume U.S.-backed drug surveillance flights over Latin
America.

Traveling with the President Thursday, Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman,
told reporters Mr. Bush has yet to make a formal decision on the matter.
However, he insisted Mr. Bush wants to take "strong actions" to fight narcotics
trafficking in Central and South America.

Drug interdiction flights were suspended last year after the Peruvian
military mistakenly shot down a small aircraft, killing a U.S. missionary
and her baby. Fleischer said if President Bush approves the resumption
of drug interdiction flights, the State Department would manage the program,
taking control from the Central Intelligence Agency.

On Thursday, The New York Times newspaper quoted U.S. government sources
as saying the flights could begin later this year in Colombia, and shortly
after that in Peru. In April, the Bush administration approved a plan aimed
at reforming the program and resuming flights within six months.

Changes would include transferring management to the State Department
and requiring all U.S. pilots and crews to be fluent in Spanish. Before
suspension of the program, the United States identified suspected drug
smuggling planes and Colombian and Peruvian air forces decided whether
to shoot them down.

Raids target spotswhere drugs sold

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Investigators staged simultaneous raids in three places in San José
Wednesday to arrest six persons to face charges of selling drugs.

The raids took place in the vicinity of Plaza Gonzaléz Víquez,
San Antonio de Desamparados and downtown San José, said agents.

The six persons included two Orientals and four Costa Ricans. The six
had been under surveillance for some time.

The drug deals centered on various eating places and stores, plus a
house in San Antonio de Desamparados, said agents. Police confiscated 223,000
colons (about $620), cocaine, marijuana, a teargas grenade, a clip
for an AK-47 assult rifle and a 9-mm. pistol, they said.